Transformers: The Great War (Fictional YouTube Series)
NOTE: THIS SERIES IS NOT REAL. ALSO NOTE THAT THE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE THIS SERIES WAS MADE IN HAS A LARGE ENGLISH-SPEAKING POPULATION IN JAPAN ''Transformers: The Great War ''is a YouTube web series created in 2012 by BNSF1995 (real name Tim Johnson). The series utilizes Transformers toys, stop-motion, and actual pyrotechnics. Since its debut, it has become an extremely popular series. The series is produced by Mad Duck Productions, with backing from Hasbro and TakaraTomy, both of whom view the cartoon as a very effective form of shilling their toys, and to that end, have assisted by providing professional voice actors, redecoed toys to serve as generics (such as Autotroopers and Seekers), and the original masters for all sound effects and Johnny Douglas' soundtrack. Origins The series, according to creator Tim Johnson (Youtube username BNSF1995), started during spring-cleaning at the beginning of his third year of high school. An unofficial member of the Sakura High School Light Music Club (mainly because his girlfriend, Tsumugi "Mugi" Kotobuki, YouTube username KeyboardGal,, was a member, and quickly becoming good friends with the other members), Johnson was assisting in the cleaning when he stumbled upon a room no one had ever seen before. Inside were over 35 boxes, all full of Transformers toys from 1985 up to that point in time. A teacher, according to Johnson, had been buying Transformers toys since the line was released in the Japan in 1985, and even bought certain toys in bulk to customize into generic characters. After learning that his stash had been uncovered, the teacher, who has, to date, asked not to be named, stated that it was his intention for the toys to be found by a student, one who was a Transformers fan. As it happened, Johnson was a life-long Transformers fan (though his first love, aside from Kotobuki, has always been trains), and had aspirations for a YouTube channel. Plot The series begins immediately after the end of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron after the Ark and Nemesis go through the unstable space bridge portal. On the other side, Optimus Prime and Megatron continue fighting, and when it seems that Prime will be victorious, Starscream suddenly pushes him and tells Megatron to take the shot. Confused, Megatron slowly comes to realize that the situation was his fault, a long-term case of megalomania driving him to kill Cybertron and then unreasonably blame Optimus for it. The two ships then tumble to Earth, and the Ark crashes into Mount Saint Helens. Four million years later, Mount Saint Helens erupts on May 18, 1980, reactivating the Teletraan computer aboard the Ark, which sends out a probe to scout the planet and find new forms for the Autobots and Decepticons aboard. The United States military moves to surround the Ark, and witness the probe's launch, but do not shoot it due to it being unarmed. From there, the war expands, with new characters, new plots, new locations, and new objects each season. Seasons 7-13 are flashback seasons detailing the 40-year Beast Wars. Production The series is produced using actual Transformers toys, and are animated using stop-motion; in earlier seasons, due to the limited articulation of the early toys, characters couldn't walk, and could only emote by moving their arms up and down; the few characters that had a wider range of articulation (IE the non-Takara molds such as Jetfire and the Takatoku molds), as a result, were given quite a bit of focus. For scenes requiring characters to perform acts too complex for the earlier toys, ToonBoom Harmony would be used to animate the characters; such complex acts include picking up or setting down objects, various stunts, punching and kicking, and manipulating things such as levers, buttons, and switches. ToonBoom is also used to animate human characters; lasers are computer-generated, while missiles are either the toys' actual missiles filmed against a green-screen with CG flames added, or white flares. Occassionally, actual animation from the cartoons is inserted. Note that this only applies to characters in robot mode. When in vehicle mode, characters are much easier to film due to there being no need to use limbs. Land-based vehicles are pushed offscreen by a technician or a puff of air, while air-based vehicles are filmed against a green-screen and composited into either animated environments, model sets, or actual locations filmed using drones. Sea-based vehicles are also against a green-screen and then composited into animated environments (as they can't float). Generic Seekers seen in aerial dogfight sequences are not actual Transformers toys, but a myriad of cheap jet fighter toys and snap-together models purchased in bulk and then rigged with explosives and filmed against green-screens and destroyed when shot down by Autobots; Seekers destroyed en masse usually have explosions matted over them and then disappear, which is also done with the Sweeps due to difficulties acquiring more. The series is produced on the soundstages of Kotobuki Industries' soundstages, usually used for filming commercials or video game motion-capture sessions outsourced from American and European studios. These allow for very large, very elaborate model sets that capture the scope of the conflicts; unlike in the cartoons, where the battles are usually skirmishes between small groups, The Great War depicts the battles on a massive, theatre-wide scale, with large troop formations, spectacular aerial dogfights, and lasers and missiles flying all around. The series has been praised by military analysts for its accurate use of real military tactics and strategies used by modern armies, rather than the often unorthodox or just plain silly tactics used in the cartoons. The series depicts the Decepticons much differently than the cartoons. Whereas the Decepticons in the cartoons tend towards stealing and/or using devices or concocting straight-up silly ideas (IE drilling to the Earth's core), the Decepticons in The Great War function more like a real military, attacking strategic targets either to steal energon to keep themselves and the lights on, or Autobot bases and positions. The Autobots, meanwhile, are depicted like they are in the cartoons: as heroic and noble defenders, though not without a few bad eggs and a checkered past for the entire organization. Both sides are willing to stoop to certain levels to get the upper-hand on each other, though the Autobots absolutely refuse to utilize scorched earth tactics, and the Decepticons will not, under any circumstances, do anything that could threaten strategically-important planets or the entire universe, and also refuses to deal in criminal activities for funding such as drug running and arms trafficking. Both sides are also in agreement that the Go-Bots (which serve as the series' equivalent of the Quintessons due to the lack of official Quintesson toys, but with an origin story and overall feel inspired by the Daleks) are a threat to galactic stability, and truces can and will be made to take them on. The series is noted for its use of live pyrotechnics; Johnson estimates that, over the course of the series, the equivalent of two kilotons of TNT have been detonated. These pyrotechnics are usually used to show how destructive the battles are Only one Transformers toy has actually been destroyed, that being Big Powered from Zone ''(as Johnson and Kotobuki owned duplicates of the three components); they were destroyed by Starscream using the Requiem Blaster during the Season 15 premiere. Characters and Cast The majority of the characters in the series are voiced by Johnson and Kotobuki. However, the series also has a rather large voice cast, such as YouTube users, fans, and even voice actors from the G1 cartoon who volunteered their services, mainly due to Hasbro backing the series. For a full list of characters, see here. Casting Notes *Most of the surviving cast members reprised their roles in the web series, the most notable exceptions being Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who wanted to be paid for being in the series (all others volunteered); the late Chris Latta is also in the series by way of Laserbeak's vocal effects (Starscream is voiced by Steve Blum, and Wheeljack is voiced by Christopher Swindle). Cullen, impressed by the quality of the series, eventually joined the series reprising his role as Optimus Prime starting in Season 14 (the ''Armada season), while Welker joined the cast during production of Season 1 after being hired directly by Hasbro. Several G1 voice actors have died as the series progressed, forcing Johnson and Kotobuki to either find replacements or do the voices themselves. *The entire cast of the Beast Wars cartoon reprised their roles, the sole exception being Campbell Brown (Rampage), who had died in 2014 (the Beast Wars season, Season 7, was released in 2015). Characters not in the cartoon are non-speaking, mass-produced cannon fodder whose original names are class names, while characters that were in the cartoon are individuals who are either faction leaders or field marshalls. Several of these actors also reprised their roles from the Unicron Trilogy. *Several friends of the creators have also lent their voices to the series. These are primarily members of the band Ho-Kago Teatime, of which the creators have known since their freshman year in high school. Other friends of the creators, as well as family members of these friends, have also done voice-acting for the series. *The rest of the cast is voiced by Tim Johnson, with Mugi Kotobuki also voicing a few female characters. When planning their voices for each character, they always try to either find someone to impersonate, or come up with something that matches the personality. For example, Johnson is capable of doing a dead-on impersonation of Don Messick, leaving no doubt as to him voicing Ratchet, Gears, and Scavenger. Kotobuki, on her part, has a very wide vocal range, allowing her to give each female character a distinctive voice (it's easy to tell if she's voicing a female character or not based on her naturally-soft voice, but she can affect harsher tones). Credits Sequence The series' credits sequences depend on the season. *Season 1 Intro (Episode 1-13) *Season 1 Intro (Episode 14-26) *Season 1 Outro (Episode 1-13) *Season 1 Outro (Episode 14-26) *Season 2 Intro *Season 2 Outro *Season 3 Intro *The Season 3 outro used animation from both "The Rebirth" miniseries and The Headmasters anime. It switched back to the Season 1B outro music. *Season 4 *The Season 4 outro used animation from the Super-God Masterforce anime, and continued using the Season 1B outro music. *Season 5 *The Season 5 outro used animation from the Victory anime. *The Season 6 intro used animation from the 1990 US commercials. *The Season 6 outro used animation from the Zone OVA, as well as scenes from American Generation 2 commercials and toy segments of Japanese commercials for The Return of Convoy ''and ''Operation Combination. *Season 7 Intro *Season 8 Intro *Season 9 Intro *The Season 10 intro used the animation of the Beast Wars II intro with the music of the Season 2 intro. *The Season 11 intro used the animation of the Beast Wars Neo intro with the music of the Season 2 intro. *The Season 7-11 outro (used throughout the season) had the Beast Wars outro over regular credits, with no motion. The season finale used the Season 1A outro to denote the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticons. *The Season 12 intro used the Season 3 intro music with stop-motion scenes made specifically for the intro. *The Season 12 outro used animation of Vehicons from Beast Machines, as well as the Season 1B outro. *Season 13 Intro *Season 13 Outro *Season 14 Intro *Season 14 Outro *Season 15 Intro (edited to remove opening narration) *Season 15 Outro *Season 16 Intro (the first 30 seconds are cut due to being irrelevant to the context of the series) *Season 16 Outro After Season 16, the series switched to using newly-made stop-motion animation to create the intros and outros. Music consists of the Season 2 intro and Season 1B outro. Episode Guide Each season is based around a toyline, and usually uses the toys from said line. For example, the first season only uses toys from the 1984-85 line, the second season adds the 1986 toys, and so on and so forth. In later series, when a character has a new toy, the character receives a new form, with characters usually suffering injuries severe enough to warrant needing a rebuild. Each season usually takes a month to produce, and new seasons are released every three months, comprised of 26 half-hour episodes each. On December 3, 2018, it was announced that the first six seasons would be remade using a combination of Masterpiece and third-party toys (toys lacking either will remain as-is), which provide superior articulation compared to the 80s toys. For the early seasons, since the toys were lacking in articulation, when a character had to walk, Johnson or Kotobuki would have to use what the former dubbed the "Captain Scarlet method" of grabbing the toy's leg and move them, while the camera was close up to avoid showing their hands; this created problems with the smaller toys such as the Mini-Vehicles and Mini-Cassettes proving very troublesome, forcing Johnson and Kotobuki to cheat by using ToonBoom Harmony. In addition, Johnson and Kotobuki often had to resort to using third-party upgrade kits for many toys, such as the original Optimus Prime, Classics Bumblebee, even many Combiner Wars toys needed upgrade kits to bring them up to snuff, with G1 Ironhide and Ratchet being the first to receive upgrade kits giving them heads and proper guns. Using Masterpiece and third-party toys eliminates this problem (as several tests posted on the series' Facebook page demonstrated), and also opens up more opportunities for character expression, as many of the Masterpiece toys poseable fingers and accessories that allow them to do things that the older toys couldn't. The remakes are being done to both bring the earlier episodes up to snuff, as well as to allow some lead time before the War for Cybertron: Siege line is released in full. Season 1 Season 1 covers the first year of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers, starting just after the very end of Fall of Cybertron. It takes place between 1984 and 1986. The plot follows the arrival of the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, getting their bearings, finding missing comrades, reestablishing contact with Cybertron, and making first contact with mankind. *''More than Meets the Eye, Part 1'' - After going through the unstable space bridge portal, Optimus Prime races to bring the wounded Bumblebee to the sick bay, while Megatron single-mindedly chases him. Along the way, Optimus meets up with Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, and Mirage, as well as a distraught Hornet (the red Bumblebee from 1984, cast here as Bumblebee's loyal twin sister), who assists Ratchet in stabilizing Bumblebee. On the bridge, he is greeted by Megatron, who reveals the Megatron chasing him was a clone named Megaplex. Just as the Autobots and Decepticons are about to come to blows, the Ark and Nemesis hurtle towards Earth, the former crashing into Mount St. Helens. Four million years later, the Teletraan system is reactivated on Cybertron by Ultra Magnus, coinciding with the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. A probe is released by Teletraan-1 and spotted by the military. Four years later, on September 17, 1984, the probe returns and repairs both the Autobots and Decepticons. Dazed and confused, Megatron (whose new logic circuits activated aboard the Ark before the crash) and Starscream (whose own logic circuits had been frayed from spending a thousand years cooped up on a space station, and were then recalibrated quite by accident when Grimlock slammed him into the wall in Shockwave's lab) find the area to be rich in all the resources they need to build an underground base. The Autobots also awaken, and Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee (whose vocal chip was repaired by the probe) and Hornet out to scout the surrounding area; they make it all the way to Seattle, and return with their findings. The episode ends with Megatron and Starscream apologizing to each other about their actions on Cybertron, as Megatron now knows that using Dark Energon was a terrible idea, and Starscream is content with leading the Seekers. *''More than Meets the Eye, Part 2'' - The Decepticons' new underground base commences construction near Eureka, CA. Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp are sent to carry out aerial reconnaissance of the surrounding area, and discover the existence of humans. Back at the base, Megatron manages to make contact with Shockwave on Cybertron, who reveals that Cybertron has settled into orbit around Earth's sun between the orbits of Earth and Mars, and thus makes his way to Earth. Upon arrival, Shockwave downloads all of the information around the world and tells the Decepticons all about the planet they're on, including the human species and their penchant for war and destruction. Unsettled by the knowledge that the humans have created nuclear weapons and have come close to destroying themselves with them, Megatron announces to the Decepticons that they'll have to keep a low profile for as long as possible. Meanwhile, the Autobots fan out around Mount St. Helens, discovering the damage done by the eruption. Optimus Prime sends Mirage to reconnoiter nearby settlements. While he's doing that, the Autobots discover an escape pod from the Ark with several offline Autobots inside, these being Skids (a theoretician from Iacon University), Crosscut (a diplomat), Clamp Down (leader of the Autotroopers, an army of elite shock troopers; the Autotroopers look identical to Clamp Down), Deep Cover (a police sergeant who is also Clamp Down's brother), Cordon (a police reservist and Autotrooper trainer), Hauler (an ex-Constructicon who defected to the Autobots), Tigertrack (a game warden who was drafted by the Autobots as a sentry), Road Rage (Crosscut's bodyguard and Tracks' Conjunx Endura), Glyph (an archaeometrist and Bumblebee's Conjunx Endura), and Tap-Out (Glyph's bodyguard). Ratchet reactivates them, and after getting their bearings, they join the marooned Autobots. While Road Rage breaks down in grief over Tracks being missing, Bumblebee and Glyph have a tender reunion, and Clamp Down begins using the Vector Sigma conduit aboard the Ark to create more Autotroopers. Back with the Decepticons, Starscream uncovers the Vector Sigma conduit that was aboard the Nemesis. Pleased with this discovery, Megatron orders the creation of new Seekers and Tanks, having found their first target: San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, owing to Megatron's fear of nuclear weaponry and desire to neutralize them. *''More than Meets the Eye, Part 3'' - The Decepticons make their grand entrance by attacking San Clemente, CA. Megatron has Soundwave hijack all television stations around the world to announce their presence. After destroying much of San Clemente, Soundwave's cassettes begin rounding up the local populace, who are taken to a sickening device known as an Organic Grinder, which breaks organic matter down into Energon. Moving in on the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the Decepticons are met by the United States Army, who actually manage to kill several generics before being annhilated by Megatron's Fusion Cannon. With the plant secure, Megatron blasts a flagpole and replaces it with a Decepticon flag. As the Decepticons start harvesting energy from the plant, they quickly discover nuclear energy is stupid efficient, practically an endless supply of Energon. After a two-day occupation, the Autobots arrive in San Clemente. The few survivors are initially fearful, but are calmed when they see a Seeker patrol destroyed by Ironhide. The Autobots besiege the plant, leading to a major firefight with the Decepticons. Finding themselves in an undefendable position, the Decepticons take what Energon they can and retreat. The American military moves back in to restore order, initially treating the Autobots as hostiles before seeing that they wear symbols different from the Decepticons. Before the United Nations Assembly in New York City, Optimus Prime addresses the world, warning them of the Decepticons, while reassuring them that the Autobots are on their side, and will defend all life on the planet to their last breaths. Back at the Decepticon base, Megatron is worried. Their existence is now public knowledge, and there's no telling how long it will be until the Autobots find their base. Reflector's components, though, tell Megatron he won't have to worry, because THEY will be the ones doing the worrying, revealing their two-faced nature as they point guns at Megatron. Having taken off his Fusion Cannon, and unable to reach his sword in time, Megatron stands helpless, while congratulating Reflector on launching their coup at his most vulnerable. Reflector's components open fire, but Starscream puts himself between them and Megatron, and takes the lasers for his leader. Before losing consciousness, Starscream fires on Reflector's components, killing all three. Upon awakening, Megatron tells Starscream his faith in his was not misplaced; any Decepticon who would sacrifice themself for their leader is a true Decepticon. Meanwhiel, the Autobots celebrate their victory over the Decepticons, but the revelry stops when Optimus shows them the plans for the Organic Grinder. A wave of fear goes through them, but Optimus rallies his men and women, stating that whenever the Decepticons attack, they will be there to stop them. Category:Fan Fiction Category:Series